The Fujifilm FinePix AV200 is a compact 14-megapixel digital camera with a modest $89.95 (direct) price, and its capable of recording 720p HD video. Its lens captures images that are quite sharp, but also very noisy at almost every ISO. It doesn’t deliver the low-light performance of our budget Editors’ Choice Panasonic Lumix DMC-S3 ($129.99, 4 stars), which also captures HD video, or the Samsung ES80 ($99.99, 3 stars), but you’ll have a hard time finding another under-$100 camera with HD video support.

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Design and FeaturesQuite compact, even though it is powered by AA batteries, the AV200 measures 2.4 by 3.7 by 1.1 inches (HWD) and weighs 5.9 ounces. It’s about the same size as the Nikon Coolpix L24 ($119.95, 2 stars), even though its LCD is a bit smaller. It's constructed of mostly plastic, although there is a metal band wrapping around the camera’s body a metal ring surround its lens. Despite having room for it on the top plate, the AV200’s zoom rocker is placed on the rear control panel. The AV200’s LCD is 2.7 inches with a 230k-dot resolution, which makes it quite sharp and bright. It is difficult to view from an off-angle, which makes it hard to minimize glare when using outside on a sunny day.

The shutter control and Power button are located on the top of the camera. Both are metal and feel very solid to the touch. In addition to the zoom rocker, the rear controls include a four-way jog wheel, a Menu button, a Display button, and a Playback button, all of which are plastic. The AV200’s lens is a 3x zoom design, covering a 32-96mm (35mm equivalent) field of view. It’s a pretty useful range, although not as wide or long as the 27-135mm lens packed into the Samsung ES80.

The camera defaults to an Automatic mode, although you can also select to use the camera in a standard program mode or in any of a variety of dedicated scene modes. You can also put the camera into a silent mode in any shooting mode—this disables all beeps as well as the flash. You can also dive into the menus to disable sounds independently, making it possible to use the flash if you desire, without having to deal with beeps from the camera’s speaker.

Performance and Conclusions The AV200 doesn’t perform well in speed tests, although this is not uncommon for a budget camera. It requires about 3.3 seconds to start up and take a shot, and an average of 3.2 seconds is needed between shots. Its shutter lag score was more respectable, the camera clocked in at about half a second in that metric. The Canon A800 started up in 2.4 seconds, but recorded a similar 3.4-second recycle time and 0.6-second shutter lag.

I used the Imatest software suite to measure the AV200’s performance in terms of image sharpness and noise. Sharpness is measured by taking a series of photos of a test chart, analyzing them with the Imatest software, and averaging the results using a center-weighted algorithm. A score of 1,800 lines per picture height is considered to be acceptably sharp, and the AV200 exceeded this benchmark, recording 2,095 lines. The sharpest camera that we’ve tested in this category is the Kodak EasyShare C1530 ($79.95, 2.5 stars), which recorded 2,546 lines.

As you increase a camera’s sensitivity to light, the level of noise in an image increases as well. According to Imatest, if an image contains less than 1.5 percent noise it is considered to be acceptably clean. The AV200 didn’t do well at all here, at 100 ISO, its lowest setting, images contained more than 2.3 percent noise. This does dip to 1.1 percent at ISO 200. This is indicative of some heavy-handed in-camera noise reduction, which destroys much of the fine detail in a photo. Noise jumped back up to 1.7 percent at ISO 400, but the detail did not return with it. Our Editors’ Choice Panasonic Lumix DMC-S3 handled noise very well, it was able to keep it below 1.5 percent through ISO 800.

The AV200 records video in 720p30 HD resolution in AVI format. Files are quite large in size, with a 30-second clip taking up 100 megabytes of storage on an SD or SDHC memory card. In good light, the HD video quality is quite nice and shows a lot of detail, although there is some visible noise. The camera cannot focus while recording video, which can be an issue when trying to capture action. A digital zoom is available during recording, but no optical zoom. Although the video doesn’t lose quality due to the digital zoom, the zooming motion is rather jerky.

The Fujifilm FinePix AV200 is one of the few under-$100 cameras that is capable of recording 720p30 HD video. Its lens is quite sharp, capturing a lot of detail—and image noise—at its base ISO. As you increase the ISO, heavy-handed noise reduction erases object detail, creating waxy images that are still rife with noise. The 3x zoom range is slightly limiting, and for only $20 more you can opt for the Samsung ES80, which gives you a 5x zoom range and clean images through ISO 400. Although it’s quite a bit more money, our Editors’ Choice budget camera, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-S3, is a good option—it is very good in low light, covers a 4x zoom range, and supports 720p HD video recording.

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